Helical pattern,bent node honeycomb roll

ABSTRACT

A HONEYCOMB ROLL FORMED OF ALTERNATE STRAIGHT AND UNDULATED STRIPS EXTENDING AXIALLY THEREOF, THE OUTER EDGES OF THE UNDULATED STRIPS EXTENDING RADIALLY OUTWARDLY BEYOND THE OUTER EDGES OF THE STRAIGHT STRIPS. THE MODES OF THE UNDULATED STRIPS ARE BENT CIRCUMFERENTIALLY OVER INTO THE RADIAL PLANE OF THE ADJACENT STRAIGHT STRIP SO THAT A SINGLE THICKNESS STRIP EDGE IS PRESENTED, ENTIRELY AROUND THE EXTERIOR FACE OF THE ROLL. THE NODES OF THE UNDULATED SRIPS ARE IDENTICAL IN CONFIGURATION, AND IN SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL, AXIALLY EXTENDING UNDULATIONS, RATHER THAN &#34;BACK TO BACK&#34; BUT ARE STAGGERED SLIGHTLY CIRCUMFERENTIALLY TO DEFINE A HELIX RATHER THAN TO DEFINE AN ANNULUS.

Febyz's, 1971 E. T. BRYAND HELICAL PATTERN, BENT NODE HONEYCOMB ,RoLL

Filed March 1968 POSITIVE OR PRESSURE NEGATIVE FLUID 1 INVENTOR. Edward T. Bryond ATTORNEYS United States Patent O F 3,564,686 HELICAL PATTERN, BENT NODE HONEYCOMB ROLL Edward T. Bryand, South Portland, Maine, assignor to Metal-Tech Inc., Biddeford, Maine, a corporation of Maine Filed Mar. 1, 1968, Ser. No. 709,662 Int. Cl. B21b 1/00 U.S. Cl. 29-121 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A honeycomb roll formed of alternate straight and undulated strips extending axially thereof, the outer edges of the undulated strips extending radially outwardly beyond the outer edges of the straight strips. The modes of the undulated strips are bent circumferentially over into the radial plane of the adjacent straight strip so that a single thickness strip edge is presented, entirely around the exterior face of the roll. The nodes of the undulated strips are identical in configuration, and in substantially parallel, axially extending undulations, rather than back to back but are staggered slightly circumferentially to define a helix rather than to define an annulus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cylindrical honeycomb rolls having full hexagon or half hexagon apertures are known to the art and have gained wide acceptance in a large number of heavy duty applications where a high ratio of strength to open area is desirable, as for example in cylindrical suction rolls and other types of filter support media.

Some difficulty has been encountered, however, in achieving optimum performance of cylindrical honeycomb structures, of the type described in U.S. patents, 3,100,928 and 3,259,961, in bulking of fibers. One problem was that some fibers were being shielded from vacuum action by the honeycomb structure during the entire time they were being transported over the roll. Other problems appeared to be related to the large amount of contact between the surface of the roll and the bulk fibers. The same problem, of course, is encountered in half-hexagonal, rather than full hexagonal honeycomb roll configurations.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved cylindrical honeycombed roll structure.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means for achieving the efficient and uniform bulking of fibers.

One other object of the invention is to provide a relatively easily maintained honeycomb roll apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cylindrical honeycombed suction roll which assures that all material passing thereover is subjeted to effective vacuum action.

Other objects of the invention will be obvious to those skilled in the mechanical arts upon reading this specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These objects have been substantially obtained by utilizing the rolls as disclosed in the above-mentioned patents but modifying such rolls so that nodes formed by suc- 3,564,686 Patented Feb. 23, 1971 cessive adjacent strips face in the same direction around the circumference of the roll are offset by a distance at least about equal to the length of a period of a node divided by the total number of node-forming bent strips around said cylindrical roll and also by recessing straight divider strips (as used in rolls of the type described in U.S. Pat. 3,259,961) or adhesive layers (as used in rolls of the type described in U.S. Pat. 3,100,928) inwardly relative to the undulated node-forming strips that make up the honeycomb structure, and further by bending the node sections of the undulated strips to cover the adjacent recessed divider strips.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of a cylindrical roll constructed in accordance with the invention showing only a portion of the gridwork thereof.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a section of the cylindrical roll of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an end view along the section line 3-3 of FIG. 1 showing, along a segment thereof, the overlap of divider strips by nodes formed of bent thin strips.

FIG. 4 is a section, in elevation along a line 4-4 of FIG. 2 showing the overlap of the divider strips by nodes formed of bent strip.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, it is seen that a cylindrical roll 15 includes a pair of oppositely disposed, parallel, longitudinally spaced, circular end members 16 and 17, with the hollow, cylindrical, half-hexagonal openwork 18 extending therebetween. Each end member is preferably supported on a stationary hollow bearing journal 19 by means of a bearing plate 20 and bearing 21, the hollow journal forming a fluid conduit 22 connecting the interior of the roll to a source of suction 23. Each end member also includes an annular, peripheral inner face such as 25 or 26, the faces 25 and 26 preferably being flat, smooth, and normal to the longitudinal axis of the roll. The end members are unslotted and are, conveniently, in the form of circular flanged rings 27 detachably secured to bearing plates 20.

The hollow cylindrical half-hexagonal Openwork 18 has a generally cylindrical outer face 28 and cylindrical inner face 29 and is formed of thin metal strips of stainless steel, said strips upstanding on edge and bent to form radially extending flow passages into the interior of the roll. Openwork 18 consists of a plurality of alternate straight strips such as 31, 32 and 33 and undulated, sinuate or half-hexagonally bent strips 34 and 35. The strips extending axially from the inner face 25 of one end member to the opposite inner face 26 of the other end member. The terms undulate and sinuate are used herein to include half-hexagonal bent strips, or any equivalent configuration which will produce a useful pattern of flow passages, a useful embossing pattern or the like.

The preferred configuration, however, is that wherein there are no back-to-back nodes, forming two ply strips in the outer face of the roll, or forming closed cells spaced axially along the roll. Instead, the preferred configuration is that wherein the straight strips are recessed, the undulated strips have a continuous outer edge projecting beyond the straight strips and the undulated strips are in substantially, parallel undulations to define continuous axially extending, fiow passages 38 or 39 from one end 3 of the roll to the other. The nodes are thus front-to-back rather than back-to-back and all face in the same direction and each undulated passage 38 or 39 is split or traversed by a recessed straight strip 32 while the nodes are bent over the part of the strip 32 therebelow.

It is the particular relationship of the straight strips 32 t the strips 34 and 35 that constitute a major improvement of the invention. Another major improvement of the invention is the feature whereby each successive row of half-hexagonal fluid conduits around roll 15 is slightly offset from the preceding row so that the total accumulated offset around the roll is at least about one cycle, or period, of the undulating strips such as 34 and 35.

Referring to FIG. 2, it is seen that each succeeding strip such as 34 and 35 is axially displaced or axially offset from one another by a distance 40 which may be described as where n is equal to the total number of undulating strips mounted on roll 15 and p is equal to the distance of the period 42 of each undulation.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, it is seen that nodes such as 36 and 37 of strips such as 34 and 35 extend beyond straight strips 32 and then bend to overlie adjacent straight strips 32.

In operation, the improved apparatus according to the invention has a number of advantages:

(a) Undulated strips 34 and 35, since they extend radially outwardly beyond straight strips 32, form spaced supporting means for a fiber-carrying belt, or wire screen, 44, shown schematically on a segment of FIG. 4, which allows improved vacuum-distributing in fiber-bulking operations;

(b) The gradual oflset or axial staggering of the successive half-hexagonal flow paths provides means for preventing the binding of any part of fibers being bulked from the suction as the fibers are carried around roll 15 on wire 44.

The bonding of straight strips to undulated strips may be achieved in a number of joining processes, including those utilizing zinc solder, epoxy adhesives, and silver brazing alloys. When mild steel is used as a material of construction, zinc dipping is the preferred method because it normally imparts the greatest corrosion resistance to the apparatus.

It will be understood that if the straight strips 32 and the undulated strips 34 had outer edges 45 and 46 respectively terminating in a common cylindrical plane, there would be a double thickness of strip at each node, which has been found to double the barrier effect to the flow of fluid through the apertures and to be undesirable. By extending the undulated strips, and arranging the undulated strips in nesting pattern, rather than back-to-back arrangement outwardly beyond the straight strips only the single thickness edge 46 of the undulated strips bars the passage of fluid. However, the outer edges 45 of the straight strips while recessed relative to the outer edges 46 of the undulated strips still present a ledge, shoulder, or shelf upon which short fibers in the flow stream may tend to staple and accumulate. By bending each node of each undulated strip circumferentially, or laterally, as at 47, over into the radial plane of the adjacent straight strip, these shelves or ledges are covered and such stapling is avoided. Thus there are no right angular pockets in the path of the fluid and no double thick edges are presented to fluid or material drawn into the honeycomb roll.

What is claimed is:

1. A honeycomb roll of the type having a hollow, cylindrical circumferential openwork formed by alternate, axially-extending thin, straight strips and thin, undulated strips, said undulated strips each having spaced, alternate, straight flat node sections fiatwise engaging and connected to the adjacent straight strip, the improvement comprising:

mounting said undulated strips with the nodes thereof all arranged front-to-back around said roll, in substantial parallelism with each other, to mutually define a series of continuous, undulated, flow passages extending axially of said roll from end-to-end thereof, and

each said undulated strip having a continuous, outer edge extending outwardly a substantial distance be yond each adjacent straight strip so that the continuous outer edges of said undulated strips are all in a common cylindrical plane of greater diameter than the common cylindrical plane of the outer edges of said straight strips and present only a single thickness outer edge to any material supported on the exterior cylindrical surface of said roll.

2. A honeycomb roll as specified in claim 1, wherein said projecting undulated strips are arranged in a predetermined pattern successively around said roll with the nodes of each successive strip axially displaced slightly from the nodes of the preceding undulated strip, to define a helical pattern of apertures around said roll.

3. A honeycomb roll as specified in claim 2, wherein the nodes of each successive undulated strip are axially displaced, or offset, from the nodes of the adjacent undulated strips a distance at least about equal to the length of a period of a node divided by the total number of node forming strips around said roll.

4. A honeycomb roll as specified in claim 1, wherein the portion of the node of each said undulated strip,

extending outwardly beyond an adjacent straight strip, is bent laterally from its normal radial plane in an incline over into the radial plane of said straight strip to entirely overlie and shield the corresponding exposed outer edge portion of said straight strip.

"5. A honeycomb roll as specified in claim 1, wherein the portions of the nodes of said undulated strips extending beyond the outer edges of said straight strips are bent circumferentially, or laterally, in an incline to entirely overlie said outer edges, and

the nodes of successive undulated strips around said roll define a helical pattern therearound.

6. In a rotary cylindrical roll of the type comprising a pair of spaced apart, parallel, circular end members each having an annular peripheral inner end face and a plurality of alternate bent and straight strips extending axially between and spaced around, the said annular, inner end faces of said members to form a cylindrical openwork, said bent strips each having uniformly spaced, flattened nodes in engagement with straight strips on each side thereof; and means connecting each said node to the adjacent straight strip for mutual support of said strips, the improvement whereby:

all of said nodes of said undulated strips are arranged in a front-to-back pattern in substantial parallelism with each other;

said nodes formed by successive adjacent bent strips are oifset by a distance at least about equal to the length of a period of a node divided by the total number of node-forming strips in said cylindrical roll and the outer edges of said straight thin strips are recessed below the edges of said bent strips, the outer edges of said bent strips are continuous and the nodes formed by said bent strips each have the portions thereof adjacent a straight strip inclined in the direction of the circumference of said cylindrical roll to overlie that portion of said straight strips adjacent to said nodes.

7. In a rotary cylindrical roll of the type comprising a pair of spaced apart, parallel circular end members each having an annular peripheral inner face and a plurality of alternate bent and straight strips extending axially between and spaced around, the said annular, inner end faces of said members to form a cylindrical open-work, said bent strips each having 6 uniformly spaced, flattened nodes in engagement with Ref ren e Cited straight strips on each side thereof; and means connesting each said node to the adjacent straight strip UNITED STATES PATENTS for mutual support of said strips, the improvement 1,593,051 7/1926 Woodworth 210-40-2 whereby r 1,949,998 3/1934 French 210-402X all of said nodes of said bent strips face in the same di- ,987,191 6/ 1961 Wennberg 210-402X rection around said roll; and 3,013,666 12/1961 Krynski 210402X the outer edges of said straight thin strips are recessed 3,259,96 7/ 1966 Bryand 29121 below the edges of said bent strips to define continuous axially extending flow passages between said bent 1O REUBEN FRIEDMAN, Primary EXamlIlel' strips and the nodes formed by said bent strips are GRANGER, Assistant Examiner bent in the direction along the circumference of said cylindrical roll to incline over that portion of said U L straight strips adjacent to said nodes. 162 372 

